About the Book

PhotoTherapy Techniques: Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots and Family Albums

…the most comprehensive introduction to PhotoTherapy Techniques available

“A thorough, exciting, and most necessary book for all mental health professionals who wish to expand their helping repertoires… Lucidly brings to light both the theory and practice of PhotoTherapy techniques, and demonstrates the latent power of photographic images to help and heal.”

— David Krauss, Ph.D., Psychologist and Co-Editor of PhotoTherapy in Mental Health

Written by PhotoTherapy pioneer Judy Weiser, this classic text (first printing 1993; second edition 1999) — links to download “Preface” and “Introduction” Chapter are below — explains and demonstrates the “What, Why, and How” of each of the major techniques, and provides theoretical rationale from both psychology and art therapy contexts.

And because the book is about how to use people’s interactions with personal and family photos to help them understand themselves better, increase insight, improve well-being, and make desired changes (while being guided by a Mental Health Professional), the kind of photo being used is not important:

These techniques work because they are about the story and meaning the photographic image creates inside the mind of the viewer — regardless of the kind of technology used to create it — and therefore they are equally successful whether using film or digital photos, and whether these are printed out on paper or viewed on phones or computer screens — or even seen “in motion” (via video or film)!

To give readers the chance to immediately begin using these techniques in their own practice, it also includes many:

PhotoTherapy Techniques: Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots and Family Albums has been reviewed in more than a dozen professional mental health journals and numerous public-media articles, generated a lot of positive feedback from readers, and has been used as a text for several university courses. It is now also available in Italian, Russian, and Korean translations. All four versions (plus Italian e-book) can be purchased through the links directly below.

Testimonials:

“Fills a tremendous gap in the literature… Therapists, psychologists, mental health professionals, educators, and expressive arts therapists will find this book an invaluable resource.”

— Cathy Malchiodi, Director of the Institute for the Arts & Health, and Faculty, Lesley University and Philips Graduate Institute

“This book opened me up to a new world, where photos can be helpful in therapy. I am studying to be a counselor, and I also have a passion for photography. This book explains how using photos in therapy has nothing to do with beautiful pictures, but rather what has meaning for your clients in their therapy. It is a book that would be welcomed by all therapists.”

— Anne Mcneil, Therapy student

Past Incidents of Plagiarism of this Book:

Settlement Agreement regarding the lawsuit in Italy against Dr. Eduardo Giusti for “substantially deriving over 90% of ‘his’ book directly (often word-for-word, page after page) from Weiser’s”. This case ended successfully (along with a letter of apology signed by him on January 26, 2006).

Portions plagiarized by Rosy Martin* in her Chapter in the 1997 Routledge book Feminist Approaches to Art Therapy (edited by Susan Hogan). [*Note: This is not the same person as the U.K. artist Rosie Martin]